Staff

---

Brett Strader

Executive Director

Brett Strader is a musician and arts leader. On his way to earning a B.M. in piano performance and a M.M. in orchestral conducting, he built a career as an arranger and composer. Brett is the founding Artistic Director of Sing For America in San Francisco, a 10-year old community-based chorus that raises funds for its singers’ chosen charities. Brett is a frequent guest musical director for Lamplighters Music Theater and the Resident Musical Director for Pacific Coast Repertory Theater in Pleasanton where he also served on the Board of Directors, including a term as President. For nine years Brett led a large and diverse music department at Lafayette-Orinda Presbyterian Church and in 2020 he conducted the San Antonio Symphony and Chorus in the premier performances of his original musical Remember (with book and lyrics by W. Blake Winchell). Brett and his wife, harpist Krista Strader, have lived in the Bay Area for 18 years.​

---

Aaron Lington

Artistic Director

Grammy Award-winning baritone saxophonist and composer Aaron Lington has performing and compositional credits include collaborations with the San Francisco Symphony, Maynard Ferguson, the BBC Radio Orchestra, the Count Basie Orchestra, Doc Severinsen, Bo Diddley, Randy Brecker, Joe Lovano, Jamie Davis, Tommy Igoe, Pacific Mambo Orchestra, and many others. In addition, he has won awards for both his playing and writing from Downbeat Magazine, ASCAP, and was the 2003 recipient of the Sammy Nestico Award. He was named the 2011 “Jazz Educator of the Year” by the California Music Educators Association, and has been recognized multiple times in the both the Downbeat Magazine Critic’s Poll and Reader’s Poll. In 2015 he was named Silicon Valley Artist Laureate.

---

Hiroko Shibuya

Executive Assistant

​Hiroko grew up in Tokyo, Japan, and still recalls her teenage dream of working in a musical environment where English is spoken. She is excited to be part of this community of musicians and also to see her childhood dream come true. Before leaving Japan, Hiroko worked for a French company in Tokyo as an assistant to its executive director who was keen to try the latest technology of late 80’s and traveled around the world. After moving to the San Francisco East Bay Area with her family in 1990, she became busy as a mother of two driven daughters who became both academically, musically, and artistically very involved. In addition to covering administrative needs in places, Hiroko also shares her Vaganova school classical ballet training that she received in Japan as a faculty member at Contra Costa Ballet in Walnut Creek, where she launched classes specifically designed for adults to discover the joy of her favorite art form. 

Board of Directors

Rodman Marymor
​Founder and President
David Poe
Founder, Treasurer, and Secretary
Kevin Eng
Joe Lerer
Pamela Rose
​Arun Saigal